Contact Force Canonical Decomposition and the Role of Internal Forces in Robust Grasp Planning Problems

Abstract

This article addresses the problem of grasping rigid objects us ing robot hands. A new formalism is presented that is suitable for representing the space of the contact forces that allow a grasped object to perform an assigned motion, and emphasis is placed on the advantages to be gained from this formalism when planning a "robust grasp. " In particular, a "canoni cal" represeratation of the space of so-called internal forces is given. Within this framework, an algorithm is proposed for the determination of feasible grasping and manipulation forces.